Chapter Text
Chapter 12 : And the Law died.
“So… What you are saying is, we are in the collective subconscious of mankind which consists of another dimension. In this dimension, mankind’s thoughts are given form as demons.” Tomura was trying to sum up the info dump. Essential skill as a gamer.
“That’s the gist of it, yes.” Izuku confirmed.
“Sweet, the Warp is real then. I wonder if the Chaos Gods are real too?” Tomura loved Warhammer 60.000, though he wasn’t a fan of the “Yvraine and Guilliman’s child becoming the new Primarch of the Ultramarine” editorial choice.
“Apparently the last God that tried to emerge was killed to save Christmas.” Joker explained his mask preventing his emotions from being shown. He was as confused as them on the matter.
Everyone stared at Izuku who shrugged.
“I am as lost as you on that one. So, we need you to have a code name if you want to… Raid with us.”
“Hmmm…” Tomura thought about his player name for a second. He didn’t refuse for a simple reason: when you played a game, you never used your real name. It wasn’t because you were playing in real life that you had to change that golden rule. “Let’s go with Mikaboshi.”
Everyone nodded, while Tokoyami and Dark Shadow openly wondered in their mind if Izuku knew what he was doing by bringing this clearly evil aligned teammate in their midst.
“So. Joker, Yatagarasu and Tengu. Why is he the only one without a Japanese nickname?”
“I am a legacy character.” Izuku explained quickly. He knew by now that Tomura wasn’t dumb, hell he was actually quite smart when he put his mind into it. The only issue was to speak in a language he could understand.
“Aaaah, this explains that. So… If I understood everything correctly, we are currently in the head of the superintendent and we are going to fuck with his mind because he hurt bird boy’s dad.” Tomura nodded, giving his approbation for their roaring rampage of revenge. It was totally something he could dig. “It’s also the raid that has been giving you troubles I guess?”
“Yep. According to the notes I have, we would need a Navigator, someone who can… Apparently see the minimap I guess?” Izuku knew a few gamer slang after all. Not as much as Tomura, but a few.
Tomura chuckled like the evil mummy he was. Oh sweet, noob who only knew part of the game were his favorites.
“Joker, remember what I told you? If the walls give you trouble, kick them down.”
“We tried that already. They seem immune to our attacks.” Tokoyami said, and demonstrated that by attacking with Dark Shadow the walls. They formed a ball of darkness, cracking with energy and with red sparkle, before throwing it at a wall. It disappeared into nothing after splashing against the wall, leaving it barely scratched.
Tomura chuckled before walking next to the wall and putting his hand on it.
“What are you do…” Tokoyami tried to ask before Tomura gestured to him to be silent.
“Wait a second…” Tomura said, happy to finally have a reason to use his quirk with no one to yell that he was destroying things that weren’t to be destroyed.
The Phantom Thieves could see the wall slowly changing color once Tomura put his five fingers on the wall. The wall showed cracks before long, as Tomura simply hummed quietly, letting his quirk work.
Sensei said he had to train the speed of his decay but Tomura preferred a slow one. Unlike what some would think, it wasn’t because he was a sadist or anything.
He simply had weird flashbacks of a crying black haired girl whenever he decayed things too fast. The simple sight of the faceless girl made his heart ache and he frankly hated the feeling.
The one time he mentioned that to Sensei, he wondered if he should give Tomura to his “darling”. It was Kurogiri who saved him from this… “Darling”, mentioning that her way of doing things would most likely hurt Tomura even more.
Tomura was therefore more than happy to slowly decay the wall, as he could do the totally healthy thing of “I am going to ignore that issue”. He was often doing that, such as with moisturization (well until the Chef told him he had to, if he wanted to stay in the kitchen) or shower (until Kurogiri threatened to warp his consoles and PC into a volcano).
When the wall crumbled in front of them, Tomura showed them a very happy smile.
“Who needs a Navigator, when you have a Wrecker?”
Izuku looked at what happened with understanding in his eyes… and his quirk analysis frenzy rising up.
“Oh my god, so that’s your quirk! Decaying thing! Does that mean you are related to Thirteen, the black hole hero?!” Izuku asked, ever the enthusiast on quirk. Tomura sneered and shook his head.
“As far as I know, my whole family is dead or left us because they wanted to be heroes.” Tomura was, after all, still raised by All For One who told him a lot of half-truths.
“I don’t want to be that guy but Mikaboshi? Could you decay the wall on the opposite wall? Cause you just opened a door on the garden” Tokoyami said, while gesturing to point said wall. Everyone stared on the beautiful japanese garden behind Tomura’s hole
“... It was a presentation! God… So, this one right? Well, let’s cheat and bypass this level with a shitty design!” Tomura said, filling his empty heart with destruction and a smile. Also, he totally didn’t decay the wrong wall because he was an idiot.
Behind him, Tokoyami and Dark Shadow gave a worried look to Izuku who was also wondering a lot of questions.
Especially since Tomura mentioned he was the heir of a criminal, yet said his family was rather heroic. It was… Strange. Something to investigate later, most likely.
When the second wall decayed, something happened though. Something they didn’t plan but in retrospect should have.
The Alarm blasted full power. Surprisingly, the mind and subconscious didn’t take well people trying to destroy part of it on purpose.
“Mikaboshi, do you have a weapon?”
“Besides my body? Nah. But don’t worry, I can handle myself.” Tomura said with a childlike smile when he saw the horde of angels coming for them with the firm intention of judging them.
Izuku, dagger and guns in hand, Tokoyami with his ancestor’s rapier and Darkshadow with her Dark energy stood ready with Tomura who…
Well, usually, even online he didn’t have many teammates. He was useful in a raid but he had no real guild. He was more of a solo player who was used in massive war as a mercenary.
However, this team might be fun to stick with for a while, wasn’t it?
Tomura also knew he had something he needed to say. A warcry from the beginning of the Internet. Something he promised Sensei to be his warcry.
“LEROOOOOOYYYYYYYY”
The Phantom Thieves charged at the Angels, and the slaughter began.
“JENKINS!”
If Tomura knew the meaning of the warcry, he would have had an issue with Sensei.
—----------
“Tomura? Are you… Sweating?” Kurogiri was surprised because unless a trainer was there or unless it was under Sensei’s direct orders, Tomura was more a “gaming” type than a training one.
Tomura having a refreshed smile, as if all the stress accumulated the past months had been released made Kurogiri wonder if he should prepare a big vacuum cleaner to hide the remains.
“Yep! Met up with Izuku and his friends! They are really nice and I plan to hang out with them now.” It was the truth after all. “Also, they are hidden villains, they need a responsible adult to watch over them and teach them how to commit crime correctly!”
Kurogiri thought about what he knew of Inko and Izuku and tried to reconcile the picture of the bean sprout with the one of a budding outlaw.
“In the real world?” Kurogiri was forced to ask as Inko needed to know if her son was being corrupted by Tomura.
“Naaah, in a parallel world where I am a mummy, the Egyptian kind, and he is the heir of a vigilante.”
Kurogiri slowly nodded his head, before sighing.
“Tomura, while Tabletop Roleplaying games are nice, they aren’t the real world. Stop being misleading. Also, if you are doing LARP, be careful with the younger kids.”
“I will, Kurogiri!” Tomura said with a smile, before patting the undead’s shoulder. “Thanks for worrying.”
—---------
“Who was the Prime Minister who established the first Hero system?” Manami said, while Gentle was closing his eyes, under stress. It was his ninth test this week with his new friend. She was quite helpful in his studies but she was also very severe.
“It was Prime Minister Amamiya who officialized the Network System. However, it was more a “citizen helping the public service” kind of system. The first system with the word Hero in it was Prime Minister Ochizuki in 2070, with the “Hero Division”. It had to be reworked soon because it was obvious he made it so his kids could have special treatment.
Manami beamed at her totally not crush while drinking some tea.
“Perfect! See, you are getting better, Tobita!” She almost wanted to call him Danjiro but they weren’t that close yet after all.
“Please, Aiba, call me Danjiro. We are friends at this point.” The gray haired man pointed out kindly, while missing he was still speaking formally to her.
“Only if you call me Manami, then.” La Brava answered with a smile, happy to notice she was making progress.
“Danjiiiiiiiiii!” A voice said happily from the outside, before Hinata entered the gym/unofficial hangout for the young aspiring heroes. Both adult stared at the woman in a clearly official suit, as the kids were hanging out by themselves (read Tomura was slowly making a path by destroying each layers of wall toward the center of the Palace).
“... Aunty Hinata ! How are you?” Danjirou said, before hugging his only family who didn’t cut tie with him after he dropped out of both the hero school and the army.
“Perfectly fine! I am here to see how you are doing and… Well I am clearly happy with what I am seeing.” She said with a smile before Gentle beamed at her and La Brava blushed a bit, hoping to be part of the reason why she was happy.
“Can you be a dear and make me tea?” Hinata asked, while she sat in front next to Manami. As a good nephew, Danjiro obeyed without asking anything. Once gone…
Hinata pulled a frightening smile for the young woman. The kind you could see on Nedzu when someone told him he wanted help to destroy a center experimenting on quirked animals.
“Manami Aiba, also known as the hacker “Love²”. I swear to God, if you are planning to use my nephew in something sick, I will end you.” Hinata said with that smile. She wasn’t dumb and she was powerful. Of course she was investigating anyone close to her adorable and sweet Danjiro.
This made Manami’s face become void of any blood. Her identity as a hacker was supposed to be a secret! Also… Also her brain was connecting some small dots. Danjiro had Tobita as his family name. The woman’s name was Hinata. The HPSC’s secretive president was named Hinata Tobita, a fairly common name but…
“Oh fuck, you are…” Manami said when she realized what it meant and Hinata smiled even more frighteningly.
“Bingo. So, what’s your purpose in becoming close to…”
“HE SAVED ME!” Manami said, closing her eyes while remembering how that man made her warm inside. “I was in a bad spiral and his videos… They cheered me up! I was this close to doing something very bad but..”
“His positive energy is infectious and you decided to meet him.” Hinata finished with the calm she usually used when she was working.
“Exactly. Just like he saved me, I want to help him! I think he can be the greatest hero if he has the opportunity to do that!” Manami said while Hinata stared at her and… beamed at her.
“Then it is perfectly okay! Mmmmh… Tell me, were you planning on hacking our servers if he failed the written test?”
Manami tried to look away, for Hinata’s greatest amusement.
“Bad idea. We use papers for that kind of thing. There are so few applicants for the independent hero exam that we can actually do that. We would have spotted it.” Hinata said calmly. “Continue to make him study. When will he succeed… I want you as his controller. Because, let’s be honest. He is adorable and strong. However, for planning…”
“Yes, I am maybe a bit simping on him but even I know he is basically a gentleman himbo.” Manami said, nodding her head.
“Well, then. That’s done. Also, remember, little one.” Hinata had to add that after all. “If you ever make my nephew cry anything other than happiness, I warn you, I have assassins.”
Manami knew the threat was real, even if Hinata was currently laughing as if she made a great joke… Sweat dripped on her back.
“Ma’am, if anyone makes Gentle cry, I am going to hack the hell out of that person to expose every dirty secret they have.” Manami said very seriously, wanting to get back some composure… To Hinata’s pleasure. Good. The girl was either madly in love or had a spine. Both were fine to her.
“BRINGING TEA!” Danjiro said, cutting short this unofficial talk between the two women.
He was just happy to see both of them so friendly with each other!
—---------------
“Y’know, I still don’t know what the goal of our raid was.” Tomura pointed out. He just knew he was going to fuck with a fucker’s mind and a cop at that. However, he didn’t know the details and how that worked out.
“We need to access the Treasure inside the cop’s mind.” Izuku explained, as he was busy slicing the throat of Beryl that was threatening Tomura’s job of destroying walls, making them progress inside each circle. They were more and more harsher the further they went inside and the decoration was slowly shifting to be more… Well, it was less divine and somewhat cozy to something now more sinister and harsher. The control was stricter and each shadow there had no mind of their own. Usually, they would try to insult them or negotiate their way out.
None of them tried that, they were all mindless drones, praising their Lord/Father education.
“... Do we get money out of this?” Tomura asked, wanting to know if he could have fun and money. As Sensei used to teach him, have fun working, that way you are always enjoying what you are doing.
“I don’t thi…” Tokoyami tried to say before Izuku nodded solemnly.
“Currently, the present raid brought us something around 500.000 yen ?” Izuku said honestly, making Tokoyami wonder how they would split the profits.
“WE ARE PAID FOR THIS JOB?!” Tokoyami always missed the money and Izuku looting anything not bolted.
If it was bolted, he also stole the bolts. Somewhere in the sea of souls, a Nac Mac Feegle and a Blood Raven were fighting to become Izuku’s next Persona.
Hey, you could obtain justice for your father and get money. Both weren’t incompatible!
Tomura stopped the decay for a second, staring at his friend.
“WHY THE FUCK ARE YOU EVEN WORKING IN THE RESTAURANT?!”
“I actually like it there!”
“... That’s actually a good point. I still want a part of the money. So, how is the gang doing ? A third of the profit for the group, in case we need money for gears or stuff, and the two thirds divided equally?”
“That seems fair, to be honest.”
“Yes, it would be dumb to have money for everyone and not giving any to a member who needs it to eat and sleep well.” Izuku said, while in some place, a certain artist was suddenly doing some math in his head.
“Joker? We had millions on us. Why did you never give me any money to eat?”
“Dude. We fucking tried 60 times. You kept saying material possessions would corrupt your painting.”
Back to the currently living Phantom Thieves.
“So… Once we locate the treasure, we steal it?” Tomura asked. He might have an high spec character, he was a noob.
“Actually, no. We have to send a card to our future victim, telling him what we will do. As a result, the Treasure will materialize and only then can we steal it.” Izuku helpfully explained as a good tutorial. Either that or he was the leader. Was Tomura a sidekick then?
“... It has a boss phase, right?” Tomura guessed, since this world worked quite a lot on weird logic.
He wondered if it was because video games were such an important part of the culture now and as a result, it shaped the mental world like a video game?
“My former master kept saying no and an heist should be done discreetly but honestly, he also never recorded a heist without a boss fight.” Izuku approved Tomura’s thinking and Tokoyami grumbled.
“... Yeeeees, I CRAVE FOR MORE VIOLENCE!” Dark Shadow said while Tomura approved the bird. He liked her, she was funny and violent!
“We don’t kill the boss, though.” Izuku said, wanting to be clear on the matter.
“... Why? Wouldn’t that kill the fucker in real life too and solve the issue?” Tomura asked
“I don’t want him dead, I want him suffering, Mikaboshi.”
“Ooooh, I see. Dead, he wouldn’t feel anything anymore. However, by maintaining him alive, you can torment him longer. I respect that kid.”
“That’s… Both a relief and a worry.”
Anyway, now, they had access to the Desk and the Treasure Aura was there.
Next time, it would be Heist Time.
“True question, tho. How do you send a criminal card to a police boss without being caught?”
… Everyone stared at Tomura, who just asked a real question and the answer was…
“Fuck.”